Monteverdi Choir

Known universally for its invigorating communication, rhythmic buoyancy and technical accomplishment, the much-recorded Monteverdi Choir came into being for a one-off concert. In 1964, the young John Eliot Gardiner assembled a group of singers for a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespers (1610) in the chapel of King’s College Cambridge. As things turned out, it was no one-off. The Vespers also turbo-charged their BBC Proms debut four years later, and over the years the choir has kept faith with its namesake. In 2018, the 450th anniversary of Monteverdi’s birth prompted performances of the three surviving operas across Europe and the United States. Then again, musical pilgrimage is fast becoming hard-wired into the choir’s DNA. In 2000, the year-long Bach Cantata Pilgrimage encompassed 13 European countries plus New York, exploring all of J.S. Bach’s surviving church cantatas, performed on the days for which they were ordained. And four years later, the Pilgrimage To Santiago celebrated the golden age of Spanish polyphony in a cappella concerts along the route from the south of France to Santiago de Compostela. But Renaissance and Baroque music form only a part of an extensive repertoire extending through the Classical era, via Berlioz, Brahms and Verdi, to Stravinsky, Tavener and beyond. Nearly six decades after that “one-off” debut, the Monteverdi Choir remains a powerhouse of passion, precision and peerless prowess.